I want to get a programmer to use (sometimes) instead of the bootloader.

I understand that I can use a programmer with the IDE and I thought the AVR dragon might be a nice christmas present to myself. It would let me experiment with JTAG and other fancy things besides the basic programming.

Ok, I can now answer from experience. The dragon was not a good choice.

It may be possible to get it working with arduino but the drivers are incompatible with the ones that get installed with AVR Studio which is how you get access to all the fun stuff JTAG, debugwire etc.

Nachtwind

You may want to try http://code.google.com/p/avr-project-ide/ . THis ide gives you the opportunety to program with the Arduino libs and environment, yet use whatever hardware (programmer!) you like.. it also handles 'regular' AVR code, so its a great all in one solution...

You may want to try http://code.google.com/p/avr-project-ide/ . THis ide gives you the opportunety to program with the Arduino libs and environment, yet use whatever hardware (programmer!) you like.. it also handles 'regular' AVR code, so its a great all in one solution...